Uttar Pradesh To Be Divided Into 4 Parts? Minister's Remarks Reignite Debate

Uttar Pradesh Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar has said that the state will be divided into four parts after a caste census, reigniting a nearly two-decade-old debate on the division of the country's most populous state.

Rajbhar, who has repeatedly proposed the idea of dividing poll-bound Uttar Pradesh into four new states -- Bundelkhand, Purvanchal, Awadh Pradesh and Paschim Pradesh -- claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "assured" him that the division of the state could happen after the caste census.

"We want to assure you regarding the 27 per cent reservation. I spoke with the prime minister about this. He (Modi) said, 'Om Prakash ji, your point is justified, but some people are opposing it.' I asked him how we could move forward, and he replied, 'I will conduct a caste census, and once we have counted the castes, there will be no difficulty,'" Rajbhar, whose party, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) is in alliance with the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, said during an event on September 20.

OP Rajbhar during the event in UP's Deoria

India is currently conducting census in two phases and the exercise is likely to be completed by February next year, .

"The state will be divided into four parts. And on the day the Purvanchal state is formed, if the chief minister is to be from any caste, then a Rajbhar's son will become the chief minister," Rajbhar, who comes from Purvanchal (eastern Uttar Pradesh), said.

BJP's Allies Not On Same Page

Uttar Pradesh minister and Nishad Party chief Sanjay Nishad called Rajbhar's claim "misleading" and said his party was not in favour of any such furcation.

"There had been a demand to divide UP earlier, but now the state is progressing rapidly in all spheres. Further, special development funds have been allocated for regions like Bundelkhand and Purvanchal that needed handholding," he told the news agency PTI.

Sanjay Nishad (File photo)

BJP's Sanjeev Balyan, however, backed Rajbhar.

"May Rajbhar ji's words prove prophetic. We have long advocated for the division of Uttar Pradesh, and it would be a matter of great joy if separate states were created to improve the region," he said.

Balyan, a two-time Lok Sabha MP who was a Union Minister in the second Narendra Modi government, said the division will help in building the high court and the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences Delhi (AIIMS) in the four states, which will eventually help the about 25 crore residents get speedy justice and medical treatment.

Sanjeev Balyan (File photo)
Photo Credit: PTI

"If UP's division will happen, then it will be very good. The state will develop and West Uttar Pradesh will become the most prosperous and good state of the country," he said.

Samajwadi Against The Move

Akhilesh Yadav, Lok Sabha MP and the president of UP's main political party, the Samajwadi Party, dismissed the idea and warned against attempts to divide the country and the state.

"Those who are talking about dividing the country are also talking about dividing the state. Tomorrow, they may want to divide the country. The country is very big. We all have to work together to make our country stronger," Yadav, the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, told a press conference in Lucknow.

Akhilesh Yadav during a press conference in Lucknow on September 20, 2026
Photo Credit: ANI

His uncle and senior Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav also rejected the move.

"If Purvanchal is formed, then Western Uttar Pradesh will also be formed. How many states will you create? If a state becomes smaller, its significance diminishes. Wherever smaller states have been formed, their economies have weakened," he said.

Calls For Uttar Pradesh's Bifurcation

Uttar Pradesh, which was bifurcated in 2000 when Uttarakhand, then known as Uttaranchal, was carved out during the BJP-led central government, has repeatedly witnessed calls for another division.

Ahead of the 2012 assembly polls, the then chief minister and BSP president Mayawati raised the demand for division and received nod from the state Assembly for splitting Uttar Pradesh into Avadh Pradesh, Purvanchal, Bundelkhand, and Paschim Pradesh.

The move, she had said, was agreed in the interest of providing better administration. She had argued the lack of development in Uttar Pradesh -- the fourth-largest state in India -- was based on its unwieldy size of 75 districts.

Mayawati during a party meeting on August 31, 2026
Photo Credit: ANI

She had suggested that Purvanchal would have 22 eastern districts of the state including Gorakhpur. Lucknow, the capital, would be a part of Awadh Pradesh which will have 14 districts. Bundelkhand would have seven districts, and Paschim Pradesh would get 22 districts and would include Meerut and Ghaziabad.

Several parties, including the Rashtriya Lok Dal and Congress, have in the past raised the demand for dividing Uttar Pradesh.

There have also been calls for a separate Bundelkhand, spanning parts of Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.

(With agency inputs)